A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I stumbled across this film while reading about the comedy show "A Bit of Fry and Laurie," since it also features the dynamic comedic duo of Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. The pair's eclectic brand of wit is, however, somewhat subdued in this bittersweet drama from director Kenneth Branagh, which concerns six college friends who reunite a decade later to catch up on old times and pick up the shattered fragments of their middle-aged lives. Sounds terribly depressing, doesn't it? It is at times, but the overriding emotion is one of nostalgia and reassurance, the knowledge that old friends, however estranged, are always there to lend a hand in one's darker hours. First and foremost, 'Peter's Friends (1992)' boasts an excellent, intimate cast, including Emma Thompson, Imelda Staunton and Branagh himself. Stephen Fry seems a bit flustered in the title role, seemingly uncomfortable playing such a sincere, polite character, though there are snippets of his usual trademark flamboyance; Laurie, however, predictably excels in a tough dramatic role.Branagh shoots the film in gracefully-moving long takes, some single shots encompassing five minutes of action or dialogue. While this approach can often seem overly ostentatious, here the use of long-takes is laudably understated. The opening scene is an elaborate flurry of song and movement that runs over four minutes, and follows the main characters through a musical performance and into their change-rooms, while scarcely acknowledging that the scene is a single take. The motives behind the technique differ from those of Hitchcock in 'Rope (1948),' in which the mobile camera voyeuristically shuffled across the room alongside the film's characters. In Allen's 'Everyone Says I Love You (1996),' the camera is basically sat in one place, a silent but nevertheless present participant in each conversation. In Branagh's film, the camera feels less like a participant than an omnipresent observer, surveying each scene coolly and detachedly. This omnipresence is heightened by an often-moving camera, recalling Altman's ever-panning lens in 'Gosford Park (2001)' {which more overtly references the "Upstairs, Downstairs"-like relationship between masters and servants}.

Dear IMDb, Here is an excerpt of the first draft of my proposed sequel, "Who Cares About You And Your Snotty, Self-Possessed Friends Anyway, Peter?"Kenneth Brannagh (smiling coyly)Isn't my life just so terribly interesting that the world would line up to see a thinly-veiled fictionalization of it?The World (yawns)Not particularly, no.This movie is the very definition of "vanity project" by a pretentious actor-director who's canon of work seems meant to bring "culture" back to mainstream cinema but always does so in a heavy-handed fashion. Kenneth, I am sure you and your real friends are oh-so charming as you sit around your country estate sipping wine and saying clever things, but please don't make the rest of us sit and watch it.

It has been just about ten years since Peter last saw his group of University friends and, after his father died, he has inherited the family manor and decided to throw a reunion party for them. Of his friends, Sarah is still pretty much the same and has brought along her latest lover with her. Andrew has long ago sold out and moved to America where he met his wife Carol. Roger and Mary are married but life lives of quiet panic and worry since the death of one of their twin babies. Maggie meanwhile is so alone that she throws herself into the slightest offer of companionship. The friends come together but the tensions and problems are barely hidden and quickly come out.Opening with the type of privately educated people that I personally find very difficult to relate to, this film immediately had me on the backfoot and worried thanks to this and the sheer volume of luvvies in the cast. However the film manages to get past this for me because the writing is better than the very basic sitcom-come-melodrama that it is only ever a few steps away from being. It goes just where you expect it to though, and the fact that all the wheels fall off the various friends' lives will not surprise anyone but it is interesting and engaging enough. The sense of humour is quiet upper-class and it is sometimes hard to get into the characters because I did get the impression that they were very aloof but it was still solid enough to keep things moving.The cast work well and indeed many of them have a background that is similar to their characters (in terms of University I mean, not the personal detail). Fry is good although I must admit not caring much for his character. Branagh does a so-so job as director (nothing particularly special) and also as actor he isn't that good here – his drunk act in particular being weak. Continuing the split responsibilities = weakness trend, writer Rudner is not great in her acting role. Laurie is strong but he is outdone by a convincing little turn from Staunton. Thompson is good even if her character could have been made more of. Emmanuel is good but only shows me how hard it is for black actors to get ahead – she has barely been seen again. Slattery is Slattery and those who like him will like him here – I don't but that is by the by.Overall this is an engaging film despite the fact that I found the characters hard to like. The story may not be the most inspiring or shocking but it is involving nonetheless and comic if not really funny. A very British affair that is generally well written despite the rather pretentious and aloof material that runs across story, characters and performers.

As this was broadcast last night I wanted to take in how it was considered here and was saddened to see that it actually has a respectable score.The talent of the cast as individuals is undeniable, the sets, locations and most of the writing well above par, but somehow the whole becomes less that sum of its parts, congealing like some ghastly precursor to The Office. Every second scene had me gripping at the couch arms cringing in shamed embarrassment for the actors involved as they tried to lay credence to their characters situation under Branagh's direction. This is an even more remarkable achievement when you consider that the roles most actors play are vaguely autobiographical. These slices of docu-soap-reality sandwich what appears to be nothing more than music videos for what must be considered by Branagh to be choice cuts from his music library.How the British film industry ever 'recovered' from this bilge is beyond me and I hope we never see it's like again. An utterly hideous, vile, sickening, saccharine pile of steaming luvvie excrement that has now thankfully been relegated to late night viewings accompanied with sign language.